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8 Best & 7 Worst NBA Rookie Of The Year Award Winners

Over the past few seasons, the NBA has welcomed in a crop of amazing young talented players to help carry the league on as previous generation saw their heroes head off into retirement. Gone are Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett and in their place are names such as Andrew Wiggins, Damian Lillard and Karl-Anthony Towns to name but a few.

However, this season, the 2016-17 NBA Draft class has led to many conversations about not only how a number of the projected "star" players are not exceeding, let alone even reaching their pre-draft expectations, but also that it may very well be the worst group of first year players in the modern history of the game. Is it fair to say that these players are nothing but a collective bust? Certainly not, as there are a number of individuals that have become a cog in their respective team machines. However, these same conversations have also led to comparing how many of the great Rookie Of The Year Award winners have turned out to be future Hall Of Fame talents, while others have fizzled out.

It's interesting to see how many of the projected number one overall picks in various drafts were not awarded the best of their class, while others received honours that may not have belonged to them, despite what the voters claimed. Below are 15 of the best and worst NBA Rookie Of The Year Award winners, the question is, do you agree?

15 Best - David Robinson

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The Admiral was voted as the ROY two years after he was actually drafted, due to his US Navy commitment coming out of college. Unfortunately for Tim Hardaway and Sherman Douglas, Robinson's official rookie year was the same season in which the point guards came into the league, one in which they could have potentially won the award.

14 Worst - 1995 Rookies Of The Year Snub

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Grant Hill and Jason Kidd totally deserved their share of the 95 ROY award, but why did the voters choose to leave out Glenn Robinson? As the first overall pick in the 1994 Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks selected the Purdue University forward. Although the Big Dog created a big stink before signing what would become the highest paying rookie contract in history, he would go on to play 80 games for the Bucks, while leading them in scoring and also bump a squad that only really had a young Vin Baker as a second scoring threat to a 14 win improvement (34 compared to 20) over the prior season.

13 Best - Kevin Durant

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At just 19 years old, the Seattle SuperSonics rookie led the charge in the Northwest club's final season in the Emerald City. While the team would pretty much tank with a 20-62 record, KD did his best to try and keep fans interested with an average stat line of 20.3 PPG, 4.4 RPG and 2.4 APG. Amazingly this would be his lowest scoring average, not to mention his lowest shooting percentages (43FG%, 28.8 3P%) to date over the course of his ten year (and counting) career.

12 Worst - Buck Williams

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To be fair to Buck Williams, he had a very impressive individual career that may be underrated by many, but to be awarded the 1982 NBA ROY Award is somewhat questionable, especially when you consider that he beat out Hall Of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas. Sure Williams' Nets team made the playoffs and they had a better regular season game improvement than Thomas' Pistons (20 games vs. 18 games) but one has to take into consideration that Williams' team had a lot more depth and talent than the 1982 Pistons, who were yet to be the Bad Boys of the NBA.

11 Best - Patrick Ewing

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Whether or not the 1985 NBA Draft was a conspiracy, there is no arguing the talent of the NY Knicks first overall selection. When you consider that the draft class also included such notables as Karl Malone, Chris Mullin and Joe Dumars, it was a slight shock that the final voting came down to a battle between Ewing and Seattle Sonics forward Xavier McDaniel.

10 Worst - Tyreke Evans

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The top five rookies battling it out for the 2010 ROY award were all guards, with the top two being known more for their scoring than for their playmaking abilities. As Evans and Steph Curry battled it out for the first year honors, their teams both floundered at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, finishing the season with 25 and 26 wins respectively.

9 Best - Shaquille O'Neal

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Not Christian Laettner, not Alonzo Mourning. In 1992, Shaq-Fu took over the NBA and dominated the game like very few big men have before or since. After leaving LSU and declaring for the NBA Draft, O'Neal would quickly change the way that teams would defend the 7'0", 325lb superman.

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8 Worst - Mike Miller

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Before he became a hired helper for the Miami Heat's back-to-back title run, Mike Miller was awarded the NBA Rookie Of The Year trophy as a twenty year old rookie for the Orlando Magic. Averaging less than 12 points and only four rebounds per game, the only reason why Miller received the award was due to the fact that the New Jersey Nets and Golden State Warriors were tragically bad.

7 Best - Allen Iverson

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As the first overall pick in arguably the greatest NBA Draft class of all-time, Allen Iverson would end up walking away with the Rookie Of The Year award over such names as Marcus Camby, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Jermaine O'Neal. Okay, sure it may have taken a few years for some of these players to get their feet wet and become the stars that they were, but we're talking players who captured MVPs, All-NBA Teams and NBA Championships. All of which Iverson was awarded...except for the elusive championship ring.

6 Worst - Michael Carter-Williams

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The 2013 NBA Draft class may go down as one of, if not theworst in league history. First off, the number one overall pick sadly ended up being a complete bust as Anthony Bennett, aw heck, let's not waste any more time on him. Moving on to the rest of the selections and the eventual ROY, MCW, who was the 11th overall pick, is nowhere close to being the best player in the draft as the Greek Freak Giannis Antetokounmpo and Tim Hardaway have turned out to be far better than the former Syracuse product.

5 Best - Tim Duncan

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Remember that David Robinson fella? You know, the San Antonio big man. Ya, well in 1997 the Spurs received some good fortune in drafting a player that was nearly his clone. Although slightly less athletic, but just as dominant, Tim Duncan would make his presence known in the Alamo and throughout the league for two decades. Sure the 1997 draft welcomed talented players such as Keith Van Horn, Chauncey Billups and Tracy McGrady, but they either retired early, were late bloomers or had injuries rob them and fans of a lengthy career.

4 Worst - Emeka Okafor

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As a member of the UConn Huskies, Okafor was one of the focal points for the 2004 NCAA Champions and the Final Four Most Outstanding Player. Selected with the second overall pick by the expansion Charlotte Bobcats (Hornets), Okafor made the Orlando Magic think twice about their selection of Dwight Howard as the first overall pick. Sure Okafor led his club in points, rebounds and blocks in his (and their) first season but Ben Gordon, Emeka's former running mate at Connecticut, averaged the same amount of points in a lesser role for the Chicago Bulls. And let's not forget the teenage prodigy in Orlando who started every game of the season (Okafor played only 73 games) while averaging only three points less.

3 Best - LeBron James

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2 Worst - 2017 ROY

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Ben Simmons could have been. Buddy Hield had potential to be. Joel Embiid has the stats to be, but not the health. When fans, voters and media take a look at the 2016-17 NBA Rookie crop and have to settle on handing out the honors, it could (read, will) sadly be the one of the most least deserving in the history of the award.

1 Best - Michael Jordan

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For all the greatness that is the 1996 NBA Draft, the 1984 class provided hoops fans with a number of Hall Of Fame talent, including Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, John Stockton and that number 23 guy. Mike didn't do much in his rookie year other than lead the Chicago Bulls in scoring, assists, rebounds and steals. He may or may not have been the reason why the Bulls improved their win/loss record from the previous season by eleven games, being the only member of the team to start and play in all 82 regular season games.

It's not like Nike would go on to create the single most important shoe in the history of shoes based off a guy or anything. MJ would go on to have a relatively decent career. Just imagine being better than fellow Hall Of Fame member Olajuwon who during his rookie year certainly was no slouch himself.